Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.
Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).
The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.
So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?
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NOTE: The comments page will now split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the link.
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Good morning, Meese! It’s another flawless day, as beautiful as the Goddess Freya Herself. Right now it’s 65 F. degrees, going up to 85 F. today—still low humidity, so the a.c. stays off another day.
This morning’s agenda is to take Miss Pink Cheeks to Nature Camp, then accompany Dearly Beloved to a tour of a retirement community. We’re getting exhausted between child care and outdoor maintenance. Even if this retirement village is in our future, however, it’ll be a couple of years down the road. Just cleaning out the garage will take 18 months.
I saw an interview with Bobby Jindal this morning following the massacre at the movie theater. “We’ll never know what was on the gunman’s mind,” Jindal said. Well, Bobby, honey, guess what—if there were such a thing as gun control in this benighted country, you wouldn’t have to wonder what was on his mind because no one would be dead. Get it?
With that, I’m off to breakfast. Got to eat, get dressed, and get out of here. Wishing everyone at the Pond and Beyond a good day!
Sure, we’ll never know what was in the gunman’s mind but we do know what was in his hand – a gun – and we can certainly fix that!
The latest thing is that vigilantes are now patrolling armed forces recruiting stations to “protect” them from more mooslim shooters. The Army, for one, is none too thrilled:
It is illegal for civilians to carry weapons on government property.
Eating breakfast, drinking tea. So next week, I’m going back to quinoa & vegetables for breakfast. Unfortunately, all the vegetables I like are on the “high potassium” list. I don’t know how to live without either spinach or kale. I’ll have to find lunch & dinner that include the “low” foods. Hmmmm.
There was apparently an article within the past few days about “Europeans” saying that Americans use too much air conditioning. I haven’t googled the original article. But — it is 78 degrees here at 6 am, with 80-something percent humidity. A/c isn’t a luxury here, it’s a necessity. Also, the different crime rates — I would no more leave my windows open than actually post a sign inviting criminals in. Sigh.
And today’s stage of Le Tour — Jens Voight sent out a tweet that looking at today, he is happy to be retired. Yow.
Earworm: It’s Beginning To Get To Me by Snow Patrol. “I tried to tell you before I left, but I was screaming under my breath – you are the only thing that makes sense, just ignore all this present tense”
Happy Friday – already warm enough at 6:45 when I headed out the door to raise a “mild glow” – remember “farmers sweat, gentlemen perspire, and ladies glow” – getting to work. While the actual air temps are in the low 80s heading for mid 90s, we’ll be at triple-digit heat index before noon. Yes, in this climate A/C is necessary if you’re going to get any sleep/be functional at all. And it’s getting worse – absolutely purely Global Warming here – what the eff did they think raising the air temps was going to do about how humid everything gets? – the humidity here in NW AR isn’t as bad as what I grew up with in Houston in the 1950s-60s, but it’s already worse than what I lived with in Austin in the 1970s. Everybody stay safe. {{{HUGS}}}
Agree with everything said by anotherdemocrat and bfitz about air conditioning. This is the third day we’ve had ours off, but that’s because the humidity is low. Open windows and fans cool the air sufficiently in these conditions.
But tomorrow the humidity will be back and so will the a.c. I remember the days before air conditioning and have no wish to relive them. Two showers a day. Sleeping nekkid on top of the sheets. Standing in one spot and watching the sweat drip off my bod into a puddle on the floor.
Knew a young nursing student once who said she and the other student nurses slept on the top floor of the nurses’ dormitory, with no air conditioning. She used to wring out a sheet with cold water, wrap it around her body, and then point the electric fan directly at her bed. It’s a wonder she didn’t get pneumonia!
Good morning, it’s 59 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. I’m going to the pool soon, then some basic house keeping needs to be done so that will fill the day. We have a fun but busy weekend ahead……a wedding reception/barbecue on Saturday, Emma’s 13th birthday party Sunday afternoon, dinner with some old friends from the East coast on Sunday night, and the grand girls on Monday.
Last night we loaded the truck with tables, chairs, and two tents and delivered them to my flower shop friend’s house for the wedding party. I’m so glad were are just sharing the stuff and not hosting the event!
Portlaw, what do your French relatives think about this?
I am really looking forward to the Paris conference and am grateful that we have a president and an administration committed to addressing climate change.
Am not sure that you know that
lived for years with Francois Hollande and they had four children together. I think she is more popular with my relatives than he. France sees itself as very civilized and the US not so.
I agree with your relatives. The Ugly American is a racist gun toting science denier steeped in hatred of The Other and religious intolerance. Their image overwhelms the TV screens and news articles and, as the base of one of our two national parties, they are given an outsized say in how our country is governed.
I look at the issues that we should be working on and then I am overwhelmed by the issues that we have no chance to advance until we take back Congress. I hope that whoever our Democratic nominee is in 2016, an emphasis is put on the 50-state strategy and winning some congressional seats and a few statehouses.
Wish we were as advanced as the French and the Germans, Jan!
Good morning, meese!! Saturday …
It is 71 degrees in Madison on its way up to 87. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast. The days of leaving the air conditioning off, even for sleeping, are over for a while. We will be well into the 90s to begin the week.
You know, I find it difficult to feel sympathy for the Des Moines Register’s reporters being barred from a Donald Trump event after their paper’s scathing editorial demanding that he drop out of the race. To say that the editorial arm of the paper has nothing to do with the reporting arm of the paper is disingenuous. I have yet to see a newspaper whose editorial point of view does not permeate the rest of the paper, from headline writers on newswire stories to the placement of articles within their layour. If this were the days of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, I would say “don’t stifle our press!!” but these are the days of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal and (for crying out loud – what is wrong with them???) the New York Times. Journalism is dead. We often have opinion promoted as fact and the lie of both-sides-do-it to cover for lazy reporters unwilling to point out that one of our country’s political parties is insane and bent on destroying our government.
So there!
The president is in Africa and there were two beautiful Pete Souza photos that showed up in my Twitter feed. I will post them shortly. The president’s weekly address is on the five year anniversary of Dodd-Frank and I will probably front page it.
See all y’all later!!
Arriving in Kenya, the president was greeted by 8 year old orphan Joan Wamaitha
They shared a hug:
Brings tears to my eyes. Hope the years ahead will be good for that child.
Aww, look at our president and that little girl! She looks like a fairy princess in her white dress and shoes. What a nice way to begin the day.
Good morning to all at the Pond! It’s 65 F. on another glorious day in NoVa, going up to 85 F. We can keep the a.c. off until tonight. Just as well we’ll be closing the windows—last night the odor of skunk drifted through our bedroom window, helped by the fan that was in place. Ugh.
The closet man is coming to put new doors on the closets. Seems it’s been pretty well decided that DIL will go to the hospital on Wed., 29 July, to have little Mohmammed Abdul. Her parents are flying in from New York on Tuesday.
We toured the retirement community yesterday and you know me—as soon as I found out there was a Conversational French group and a Progressive Club I was all ready to move there. Dearly Beloved does not want to move, not yet. We’ve compromised—we will look into the cost of a monthly weedfighting—oops, I mean landscaping—crew, because that’s the thing that preys on our minds right now, but we will place our names on the list. One day we’ll move from the Futures list to the actual Waiting list.
In the meantime we can start getting rid of junk. Apologies for being so personal rather than political this morning, but the news is always the same: wildfires in the West, gun violence in the South, floods in the Midwest, and Mass Stupidity attacking the East Coast. The latest “scandal” manufactured by the New York Slimes against Secretary Clinton has been thoroughly debunked. I trust blogs rather than newspapers because blogs will round up news from all sources.
Everyone have a good day!
Personal is just fine for morning check-in! And anywhere, really. I usually start my day by checking the weather and the news so I am filled with all sorts of opinions about it. I am going to put the worst of the news (guns … again! hate groups … again!) in the Weekly Address and News Open Thread because I am sick of it!
I did enjoy this Wonkette piece from yesterday, talking about the latest Pew poll showing that, yes, Republicans are awful and, in a surprise, even Republicans realize it: New Poll Shows Republicans Starting To Realize They Suck
By the way, notice that line in the upper right hand corner? Despite “Democrats in disarray!!” headlines, we Democrats are actually pretty okay with our party. Maybe by now because we realize that we are not all going to agree but that we will all come together on the big issues.
We are having similar conversations about living in our house Diana. Hiring assistance with the garden and lawn care has helped, but I know we need to start planning a move to a one story house or condo. Little things, like carrying the laundry baskets upstairs from the basement become big things when RonK can’t lift and I can’t carry!
When as our son is more fully recovered we’ll get back to the basement remodel, and in the mean time I’ll keep sorting and trying to simplify the layers of stuff we have accumulated so that when the inevitable move does happen we will be ready.
It is a conversation that people need to have, with their kids involved, before it becomes a “we have to do something NOW!!” situation. I am glad you are looking at it.
Eating enough breakfast to take vitamins, watching Up & Le Tour. I’ve has a headache since last night, so I don’t know how much I’m going to do today. I managed to eat just enough dinner last night to take my vitamins, but no more. When my tea gets good & cold, we’ll see if I can have food with it. Only liking the up close shots on Le Tour, the sweeping helicopter shots are bothering me. Today is L’Alpe d’Huez, which is one of the legendary stages – the crowds are insane, almost blocking the riders.
Kornacki is talking about the Perot myth. Maybe if enough people talk about how Perot pulled equally, it will get through people’s heads. Interesting discussion — I forget how young everyone of TV is, that they only know the 92 campaign from reading about it.
Perot drew evenly from both parties and had he not run, Bill Clinton would still have won.
But Trump is a whole different thing, as Harry Enten pointed out at FiveThirtyEight:
One thing I saw pointed out is that often voting for a third party is a first step for people leaving a party. In 1968, the defectors to George Wallace were Democrats on name only … they had rejected LBJism and would later grudgingly join the Party of Lincoln, their sworn enemy (helped “home” by the dog whistle of Ronald Reagan in Philadelphia Mississippi). I have no idea where Trump voters would go; they surely would not be welcomed into the Democratic Party. Maybe a permanent third party made up of Jim Webb voters, Rand Paul voters, and Trump voters: we could call it the Confederate Party and they could have a place for their flag and a historically accurate place for their hate.
Stressed out today – found out my bank card was hacked from Dubai – thankfully my bank caught it and the money will be replaced but the whole thing is nerve-wracking.
Beautiful weather here – am going out for a long walk.
Gak! I had a card hacked once and used at an Internet casino site many years ago. Fortunately, my bank recognized it as fraudulent activity because it didn’t match my purchasing behaviour. It felt icky though thinking about people using my cards. I hope that your bank offers you free credit protection. I have it and it gives me a lot of peace of mind.
A walk sounds great! It is already too hot here to do anything outside. I will sit at my computer and get some end of quarter accounting done and then take a nap on my couch. :)
Good morning, it’s 58 and partly cloudy in Bellingham today. My friends wedding barbecue will be outdoors in their garden so I hope rain showers won’t dampen the fun. I’m making gluten free chocolate ganache cupcakes so I need to start baking and then figure out a way to serve them. They are very tasty but a bit messy to eat without a plate and fork.
A quick scan of my local papers tells me to just keep my focus on gardens, flowers, food and family celebrations…..real life is more fun than reading the news! I don’t wish to be uninformed but a break from the mean spirited world the R’s have created is most welcome.